Is there an Archetype that can do this?

I was thinking that wouldn't it be nice to have a archetype that can use both Spines and Thorny Assault. Perhaps this melee and ranged combat archetype is already covered and could proliferate one of of these powers, but it has escaped me.

Perhaps this could be a new epic archetype?

There is no AT that combines Melee and Assault sets and it is VERY unlikely we will ever see one. Back in the original beta for CoX Blasters were Blast/Melee ATs but the devs changed it when they realized that the combo just did not work. Characters need something to mitigate incoming damage so Blasters got changed from Ranged/Melee to Ranged/Manipulation with "Manipulation" being loosely defined as a mishmash of Melee, Control and Support powers.

You mean you want an AT that has both Melee and Ranged powers? Just off the top of my head, but Blasters (ranged primary, with a non dev/mm secondary), Soldiers of Arachnos, Dominators, and Peacebringers all have combinations of Melee and Ranged powers where it's expected you'd have and take both (SoA vary from branch to branch).

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Might be a few decades, Cow.

I wouldn't mind Blasters getting a plant manipulation power set, which wouldn't be a straight port, so I don't think we'd see it in a proliferation. I can't see spines getting ported to blasters at all since it's a melee set. So the answer is no, you can't have a pure ranged/melee set.

Guys the " XD " was a smiley-con saying I didn't think it would ever happen.



So the sets are too different than what the blaster gets. So then do you think a archetype that gets Spinsrimary and Thorns:secondary could make for a balanced archetype? or would some re-working of one of the sets need to happen? Or would it flat out be too powerful?

Half of the Spines powerset is ALREADY in Thorny Assault. Spine Burst, Impale, Ripper, Throw Spines and Skewer is basically Lunge. So no AT, even a new one, would match those sets because of all the overlap in powers. Just maKe a dominator and you will basically have what you want, full mix of melee and ranged spine/thorn attacks

I gotta ask why you'd want the Spines primary with the Thorny Assault secondary. Thorny Assault is based on Spines, and the overlap putting the two together wouldn't really make a complete set. The powers in the primary would do the same thing as the powers in the secondary.

I would be interested in the devs doing off combo proliferations on test server. Could spark a few mad ideas and everything on test server is harmless....

What you are actually asking for is a Blaster with Spines Blast and Spines Manipulation.

The problem as I see it is that Spines/Thorns are launched from the character's body, and thus don't have the velocity of, say, a bullet. So a Spines Blast is kind of an odd idea. They would all be long ranged, no melee attacks involving the spines unless you took the corresponding Secondary. I'm guessing they could be high AoE, low range, like Pistols, and it would work nicely. As a set there would not really be a problem.

Spines as a Manipulation set would be a little odder, though. First of all you would have the melee attacks, but only a limited set of them. The rest would probably be using the poison in the spines to produce defensive effects, like an Immobilize or even a stun. There would have to be some self buffs of some kind, at least Build Up. And maybe you could create some sort of AoE effect like a briar patch that would slow or entangle foes in it.

Likely, the best way to implement this would be to expand the idea, to Plant Attack and Thorn Manipulation. Then you could fire things like pollen and vines instead of just thorns. And some of the powers in Plant Control could be in Thorn Manipulation, like obviously the first power would be Entangle, the Immobilize power.

Keep in mind that Ranged and Assault overlapping would not only duplicate a lot of ranged attacks (as they are both in Ranged and Assault) but you also wouldn't have any of the control powers like Entangle to keep the foes off of you. That wouldn't be any existing Archetype, it would be a new one. And I don't think there should be such an Archetype, as Assault is really nothing but a combination of Ranged and Melee anyway. So you're essentially asking for Ranged/Ranged/Melee. Ranged/Melee was tried in Beta (that's what Blasters were) it didn't work, since they had no way of defending themselves.

Now, Melee paired with a Secondary that is a combination of Ranged and Control? Interesting. But probably not as powerful as a Dominator. You've basically looking at a Blapper, with lots of melee attacks, but very little AoE and certainly no Tier 9 nuke. I don't think it would be as survivable as either a Blaster or Dom.

Fortunatas make an excellent combo of melee and ranged powers. You will have claw attack powers from your original widow powerset and psychic blast from the fortunata powerset in addition to defensive powers in the secondaries. Its a villain epic but you only have to get to level 20.

How about giving a plant/thorn dom a try, doms got a nice buff recently. they are really fun to play now.

It's kind of like playing a crazy blast/scrap/troller hybrid (plant theme pun).